What Were You Given?

Some time ago, I wrote an article called, “God’s Choice or Man’s.” If you have not read it, or you are uncertain about God’s sovereign election unto salvation, I recommend that you pause and follow the link now. (Also see Related Posts below.) If you are ready to consider the ramifications of God’s sovereign dealings with people in all things, let me present an interesting facet of that condition.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter thirteen, the disciples ask Jesus why He so often speaks in parables. He responds, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.” (Italics mine) At first glance, it may seem that God is being unfair or even capricious. That is until you remember that He told Isaiah that he would be sent to people who would see but not see and hear but not hear. It proved true. Despite numerous warnings of what was to come of Israel’s disobedience and idolatry, they were taken captive to Babylon for seventy years. Isaiah warned them; they refused to hear.

Jesus quotes from that context to explain His use of parables. From our perspective, we look back and see that the Jewish leaders had to reject Jesus as Messiah, or they would not have crucified Him which was God’s intended purpose from the beginning. That in itself is a bit hard to understand, but it is exactly what Peter told them after Jesus’ resurrection. A sinless One had to give Himself as the atoning sacrifice for all mankind. In a weird sort of circular irony, it was the very people He came to save who crucified their Savior.

Think again about the concept of God’s sovereignty. Not only does He rule over all, He has the power to accomplish His will without exception. A few of the Jewish religious leaders were given the secrets, as Jesus explained, but not the majority. Remember Nicodemus, Jesus’ night visitor and Joseph of Arimathea who loaned Jesus his tomb for three days; they were two of the elite who got it. Read the Gospels and notice how Jesus could win converts throughout Galilee, but He was driven from His hometown because of their unbelief. The secrets of the kingdom are given as God wills.

Noone who reads the Scriptures carefully can deny that God chooses His people for His own reasons. One may ask how the concept of sovereignty plays out in the lives of those who have been given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom. Why were James and Stephen martyred early in the church’s establishment, but many other first-generation disciples ministered for many more years? Why was Saul allowed to capture and kill so many followers of the Way before God finally gave him the secrets of the kingdom, after which he suffered numerous trials including being stoned and left for dead? Why was John boiled in oil (so tradition says) and then exiled to the island of Patmos?

Then there is the curious fact that although Jesus told His closest disciples He was going to die and rise again, they didn’t understand. That has always puzzled me until I read Jesus’ words in Luke: “‘Let these words sink in: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.’ But they did not understand this statement; it was concealed from them (Italics mine) so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.” Apparently, there are some secrets that are not given for all to know. God has His reasons.

In the Gospel of Luke, the narrative that follows Jesus’ explanation for the parables is the one about putting your lamp on a stand rather than hiding it. Jesus closes the parable saying, “For nothing is secret that will not become evident, and nothing hidden that will never be known and come to light. Therefore, consider how you listen, for whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away from him.” That is a frightening thought. Not only does God give to whomever He chooses, He takes away too.

Job knew this; he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Consider this: maybe that was also the point of the parable of the sower. Jesus said the seed is the Word of God. The Word is sown by God’s grace through human agency. Then the all-knowing, all-powerful God allows some to be taken away by various means: shallow hearts, worldly concerns, and the devil’s schemes. This may also be what the Hebrew writer meant when he said that some would fall away after having, “tasted the good word of God.” It could be that those taste-testers were in one of the categories Jesus mentioned in the parable of the sower.

If you are one to whom it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom – if you have tasted the good word of God, make every effort to see that the soil of your life is deep and kept watered. To do that you must spend time with the written word and commune often with the Living Word. If you fail to do that, you risk having God take back what He has given. That could have disastrous consequences.

Related Posts: Election: God’s Choice; The Hidden Things; Calvinist or Arminian